PREVIEW
A pair of clubs looking to reverse recent skids and begin moving up the Eastern Conference table meet when the Montreal Impact and Houston Dynamo clash Sunday evening at Stade Saputo. The clubs met a year ago in the Knockout Round of the MLS Cup Playoffs, but currently sit outside the postseason positions. The Impact returned to league play at midweek with a scoreless draw at Vancouver, while the Dynamo haven't scored in more than six hours in a four-game losing slide, their last league contest a 2-0 home loss to Sporting Kansas City.

HOUSTON DYNAMO
The Houston Dynamo suffered their fourth consecutive shutout defeat, falling 2-0 to Sporting Kansas City on June 6 at BBVA Compass Stadium. The Dynamo are in seventh place in the Eastern Conference with 17 points from 16 games.

LAST MATCH

Sporting went a man down in the 21st minute when Toni Dovale was sent off by referee Juan Guzman for an apparent off-the-ball elbow against Dynamo midfielder Alex Lopez.

But the visitors took the lead just before the halftime break. Just minutes after clearing a ball off the line, Dynamo defender Eric Brunner miscontrolled the ball on the edge of his box and it fell to Soony Saad, who coolly stroked a low shot into the far corner.

Sporting doubled their despite the manpower disadvantage in the 70th minute after rookie center back A.J. Cochran was adjudged to have handled in the penalty area and Dom Dwyer converted the spot kick.

Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear made two changes to the team that fell 3-0 to the Colorado Rapids at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. A.J. Cochran and Alexander Lopez came into the team, in place of Corey Ashe and Warren Creavalle.

The Dynamo were shut out at the attacking end for a fourth consecutive match, the most in club history, having not scored in league play since May 17.

The Dynamo have also now gone 389 minutes without scoring, also a club record, one minute longer than the previous record set June 1-July 6 of last season. The streak is the longest in MLS this season.

The Dynamo were forced into an early substitution as David Horst had to come off with a groin injury with the game just nine minutes old.

"I'm the guy who picks the team, I'm the guy who makes the subs. This game is completely my fault tonight, I take 100 percent of the blame," said Kinnear.

Young Honduran Designated Player Alexander Lopez made his first MLS start, coming into the center of the midfield alongside Servando Carrasco.

Goalkeeper Tyler Deric made his fourth career MLS start. It was the second game regular No. 1 Tally Hall has missed since the end of the 2011 season, missing the season finale in October 2012 when the Dynamo had already secured a playoff berth and Deric started vs. Colorado.

The move was to "just give Tally a break. Tyler's been playing pretty good in practice, wanted to give him a chance and I think we've been giving up a lot of goals, I think Tally's getting kind of beat up; that was the thinking behind it," Kinnear said.

Said Deric: "It was nice being on the field but a really disappointing result. It's been a long wait, I've been working hard for a long time -- but you're in there to get results and this isn't the result that I wanted."

Following the league match, the Dynamo opened their U.S. Open Cup campaign with a 1-0 win against PDL Laredo Heat in their fourth-round tie at BBVA Compass Stadium. Alexander Lopez scored his first competitive goal for the Dynamo in the win.

But the Dynamo were bounced out of the competition in the fifth round, falling 3-2 in extra time to in-state rival FC Dallas on June 24 at home. Giles Barnes and Omar Cummings had scored for the Dynamo as the match went into extra time tied 2-2, but Tesho Akindele scored the match-winner in the 98th minute.

The Open Cup matches left the Dynamo with more injury woes, as both Alex Lopez (left hip pointer) and Will Bruin (right hip pointer) were forced off during the match.

"It's been a sadly comical period of time for us with what we're going through," Kinnear said. "It's the second half of the season and our focus is solely on the league. There's no Open Cup, there's no CONCACAF [Champions League] and our schedule's going to be a little more regular which will be nice. It's nice to have that focus and to be able to concentrate on that."